There was that game where he played some fringe players and/or changed the formation and it failed miserably. Harry's response was : "See? Told you". He really could get incredibly defensive sometimes but, as said earlier, people's problems with him often centre around his personality. Everyone's human and has faults. All I ever care about is Spurs - how well are we playing, are we getting results. That's all. And, whilst I had no built-in fondness for him before he came to the club I would give him a massive thank you and shake his hand if I met him. Made me more excited and proud to be a Spurs fan than any point in the last 20-odd years. My attitude was always that he can say what the hell he wants to the media so long as he keeps the players performing like they did for the most part.
The QPR forum last season was up and down on their views. Arry takes over and they are excited. He gets them picking up points. Beating Chelsea and they start to say he's a genuis. Then it becomes apparent even Arry can't pull off the impossible. Redknapp starts moaning in the press and the fans slowly start thinking he's a mouthy cockney. Now they are all excited again and enjoy his press conferences. As been said. It's a roller coaster with Redknapp in charge. Up and down. But at least you know where you stand and that the players will perform for him and as Lenny said, since the premier league started it has easily been the most exciting period and that was down to Redknapp and his personality as a person and manager.
It is possible not to be in love with Redknapp without hating him. He did well, within his self imposed limitations but once you start talking about over achieving and being grateful for fourth it's goodbye Harry and thanks for the memories.
Evidently you were not grateful for fourth? Not good enough? Prefer the good old days of finoshing 12th and maybe a league cup? And yes - Spurs finishing 4th is very clearly overacheiving in the current environment. I just don't get it. You'd rather not finish fourth as long as the manager made the right sort of noises in the press in your opinion? Blimey. If Harru got you this annoyed you must have been seething with every under-acheiver of a manager we've had over the last 30 years. And you definitely want AVB out, right? Or is it okay to finish 5th as long as you say the right things to the press? If AVB talks about how we're the biggest club in the country and we're gonna win the league should he have a job for life? What you say to the press is clearly a lot more important than performances on the pitch or league positions.
Ah, the rose tinted glasses. The last time I saw those on this site was when the record points total was achieved last season and wildly celebrated by many on this site as a great achievement by our new leader, somehow ignoring the fact we had dropped from 4th to 5th.
Don't bring The Two Ronnies into this. 'Arry did exceptionaly well for Spurs. He wasn't perfect and things went wrong in the end, but few would have been able to get Spurs to 4th and laid a solid platform for AVB to still contend for 4th. It's goodnight from me.
Bullshit Lenny, all I am doing here is countering the Harry Fan Club. I am not 'grateful' for Spurs results, that is not a level as far as I am concerned. History always has more than one side to it and often only one is heard. In this case and on this thread there is more than one view of Harry as we all know. There is no 'anger' in my comments just a little surprise at the 'adulation' of a man who IMO has done little to deserve it. Do I have to keep expressing my support for the Harry method of football? I like and support the Harry method of playing football! OK? What did we win with Harry? As for my support or not for other Spurs managers? Is that relevant to this thread? None of this should be a surprise we have had this discussion many times. I try not to compare AVB to Harry as they are both very different in fact almost the polar opposite and my view of Harry is not dependent on my view of others.
I tend to take up losing causes, so I was a dos Santos backer. But he certainly had his pros and cons. He really can produce goals, he even mostly works fairly hard, but he tends to both take up a lot of the ball and play exactly one way, that is, dribbling around the edge of the box, then letting a left-footed shot or cross fly. Probably good enough for a team like Mexico or a second tier La Liga side to put up with. For Spurs he might have been a nice option B, but from what I gather never quite recovered from losing his cookies at the Christmas party. The line I remember about Harry was that he got the big things right, beginning with the fact that football is entertainment. Even his incessant and occasionally ill-advised yakking to the press kept us in the news, on balance a good thing. But it wasn't a matter so much of whether he should have gotten canned, to me. He decided he wanted to be elsewhere, and from that moment it was only a matter of time until he was.
For me it's as simple as this. Before Redknapp we expected to give up at least four points a season to each of the Sky 4 teams and even Liverpool, We could not defend to save our lives, even with the likes of King and Judas in the back four. We scored a few, but were seen as pushovers. Okay, we always had the odd extraordinary player, but they were there more as a way of keeping us quiet and putting bums on seats than part of a strategy for success. BMJ built the foundations and Harry finished the job. Do I like him? Unlike others here I don't think that having an Essex/Estuary accent means that you are a wideboy. He is a consumate motivator and like it or not, his profile kept Spurs in the papers most days and probably attracted players who wouldn't have come here otherwise. The England debacle was unfortunate, but I think you have to have to ask yourself: If you were managing a team other than Spurs and you knew England was interested would YOU quash the story? He made us contenders, so yes I like him. Am I sorry he's gone? Not entirely. If AVB gets this right we have potentially the best Spurs team since the 80's maybe even since '61.
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